What You Need to Know

Another No-No

The Wednesday Takeaway
When play began on Wednesday, the Dodgers—thanks to Josh Beckett—were the only major-league team that could boast about a no-hitter this year. That’s still true. Only now they have two of them, after Clayton Kershaw sliced through the Rockies in Chavez Ravine last night.

The left-hander raced through the first six innings, retiring all 18 batters he faced. Ten of those 18 went down via the strikeout. And Kershaw had accomplished all of that on just 78 pitches.

With no concern about his pitch count—and no reason to sweat the shutout with the Dodgers ahead 8-0—Kershaw took the mound in the seventh poised to keep on rolling. Moments later, two ground balls to the left side of the infield would define the game’s place in baseball history.

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I like to start my day with this column. Today's featured great writing and analysis, as usual.

The Nationals got some ridiculous jumps in tallying their five steals last night. Jason Castro made some strong throws, including the one on Werth's steal, and almost nailed both him and Denard Span. Scott Feldman seemed indifferent to the presence of baserunners; in fact, one of the steals was an Anthony Rendon swipe of third on which he had such a lead that Castro didn't even attempt a throw.

I completely agree with this. In a way it's more impressive than a perfect game, because he technically retired 28 batters instead of 27. It's always bothered me that a pitcher doesn't get credit for a perfect game if the only blemish is someone reaching on error. It's not the pitcher's fault!